Finding sanctuary: Janelle Monáe hopes to ‘be a refuge’ for fans during Saturday’s Ravinia concert

Janelle Monae, here performing during the 67th annual Grammy Awards, says she’s tapped into the freeness of artists like Grace Jones, who she will perform with Saturday at Ravinia Festival. AP, Feb. 2, 2025

As a child, Janelle Monáe had nightmares about two people: Grace Jones and Prince.

“I’ll never forget it,” the singer says. “Prince was chasing me in a purple suit, and Grace Jones was just laughing hysterically.”

In time Monáe would become both a friend and an artistic heir to the two iconic musicians, each untethered by conventions of genre and gender, and each capable of alchemizing androgyny and Afrofuturism into new forms. But it wasn’t until adulthood that she understood the nightmare obscured a dream.

“What I later found is that there was a part of their freeness and freedom